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Parenting – The New School Grandfather

Once a small chubby baby had now grown into a sweet little three-year-old girl, Dia. As she grew there was this one thing that she couldn’t let go of, a habit that’s a nightmare for many early parents.

Dia wasn’t ready to let go of her feeding bottle and start using glasses instead.

Her parents were trying tooth and nail to inculcate the habit of drinking milk or water in a glass but all their efforts went in vain. Until one summer vacation, her grandfather had come to visit her.

On the third day of his visit, while watching cricket in the living room, he all of a sudden heard her daughter-in-law irritatingly convincing Dia to hold a glass of milk and to drink from it. He realized what was happening and thought of a trick to help both his grand-daughter and her daughter-in-law from the everyday drama.

He gently smiled, slowly got up from the sofa and slipped into the kitchen. He picked up Dia’s feeding bottle and dropped it on the floor and it broke.

He walked into the room, holding the broken pieces of feeding bottle and politely requested her grand-daughter saying, “Beta, while bringing this bottle to you, it slipped from my hand and it broke. Can you please manage to drink your milk in the glass today? Your grandfather is extremely sorry. I promise to buy you another bottle tomorrow”

For Dia her grand-dad meant the whole world to him. She wouldn’t dream of being upset or furious with him, because who else would buy her tons of chocolates and toys. So she readily accepted the glass and drank the milk.

As promised, the next day the grandfather went to the supermarket to buy the feeding bottle but instead of one, he bought four.

And for the next four days, he would daily show Dia a new feeding bottle and then pretend that it slipped from his hands and broke. He would again request her to drink the milk in the glass and promise to buy another the next day.

Until the fifth day, surprisingly Dia made no fuss about the bottle but instead just sipped the milk from her glass.

Her mother was shocked and amazed as she was expecting her daughter to throw tantrums and was prepared with all the tools, techniques and words to frighten her to adapt to the changes in habit with age.

But she was at a loss for words on seeing her daughter happily drinking the milk from her glass. But she knew how the magic worked. And the magician was none other than Dia’s favorite and loving grandfather.

She thanked her father-in-law for teaching her to combat challenging situations with a different approach so that she can now practice teaching her daughter in a fun way rather than using the old school principles of scolding, frightening, thrashing and punishing.